Oct 7, 2010

Alumina

The following paragraph is from the October 7th UN Wire (click here for entire SmartBrief)

Poisonous sludge reaches DanubeHungarians were working to stem a flow of toxic sludge that has begun to spill into the Danube in what Greenpeace is characterizing as "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years." The leak from a reservoir at an aluminum plant already has resulted in the deaths of four and injuries to hundreds, and notably has killed all the fish in the Marcal river. The New York Times (free registration) (10/7) , BBC (10/7)

"Oct 5 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday a sludge spill in western Hungary that killed four people may have been caused by human error and there was no sign of it being due to natural causes. Orban also told a news conference there was no threat of radiation in the area affected by the flood of red mud from the reservoir of an alumina factory, owned by MAL Zrt.
Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties earlier on Tuesday, the day after a torrent of toxic red sludge tore through local villages, killing four people and injuring about 120."